Late afternoon. You and Carol walked the beach for usual distances, had breakfast, napped, then began packing. Some material is already in the car trunk. Leftovers for lunch and again, soon, for supper. This afternoon before Carol laid out for sun, you played another game of Scrabble. Carol won (as usual).
The sun is very hot and there is quite a glare from the water and beach. Fewer people out this afternoon. Saturday is “departing” day at this condo so everyone is probably beginning to sort and pack. Tomorrow Bill is going with Jean (she is softball coach and AP History teacher at her high school) – Bill coached girl’s softball for years so he helps her out. Jean was a pitcher on a world champion team when she was in college. The whole family still revolves around the sport. Jen played in college too – both had scholarships. So, that’s the background. Bill will be helping Jean, which leaves Linda and Carol to come up with something. I would imagine it would be shopping but who knows.
I mention all this because if things work out I can continue with the next scene, nine. I am curious as to how this will play out with Tiresias coming forth into my head for a second, and how he feels about it – what’s his point of view and perspective, especially since he has some clues (not popping into my head, but meeting with Ezekiel. He recognized the Hebrew on the Merlyn page but not the English of course. The letters are Roman but the Greek roots of some words may have gathered in his mind. It is fun to think about.
You googled “heart and soul” again today and your blog is nowhere to be seen.
That’s the way it is on this planet (and probably every other) – here today, gone tomorrow. I don’t have a problem with it. I think my usual readers (for which I am grateful) number about twenty.
This morning you read a science article on BBC. I would like you to post a selection of it here as it may be useful later. – Amorella.
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3 June 2011 Last updated at 05:38 ET
Quantum mechanics rule 'bent' in classic experiment
By Jason Palmer
Science and technology reporter, BBC News
Researchers have bent one of the most basic rules of quantum mechanics, a counterintuitive branch of physics that deals with atomic-scale interactions.
Its "complementarity" rule asserts that it is impossible to observe light behaving as both a wave and a particle, though it is strictly both.
They say the feat "pulls back the veil" on quantum reality in a way that was thought to be prohibited by theory.
Quantum mechanics has spawned and continues to fuel spirited debates about the nature of what we can see and measure, and what nature keeps hidden - debates that often straddle the divide between the physical and the philosophical.
For instance, a well-known rule called the Heisenberg uncertainty principle maintains that for some pairs of measurements, high precision in one necessarily reduces the precision that can be achieved in the other.
One embodiment of this idea lies in a "two-slit interferometer", in which light can pass through one of two slits and is viewed on a screen.
Let a number of the units of light called photons through the slits, and an interference pattern develops, like waves overlapping in a pond. However, keeping a close eye on which photons went through which slits - what may be termed a "strong measurement" - destroys the pattern.
Now, Aephraim Steinberg of the University of Toronto and his colleagues have sidestepped this limitation by undertaking "weak measurements" of the photons' momentum.
The team allowed the photons to pass through a thin sliver of the mineral calcite which gave each photon a tiny nudge in its path, with the amount of deviation dependent on which slit it passed through.
By averaging over a great many photons passing through the apparatus, and only measuring the light patterns on a camera, the team was able to infer what paths the photons had taken.
While they were able to easily observe the interference pattern indicative of the wave nature of light, they were able also to see from which slits the photons had come, a sure sign of their particle nature.
The trajectories of the photons within the experiment - forbidden in a sense by the laws of physics - have been laid bare.
On one level, the experiment appears to violate a central rule of quantum mechanics, but Professor Steinberg said this was not the case.
He explained to BBC News that "while the uncertainty principle does indeed forbid one from knowing the position and momentum of a particle exactly at the same time, it turns out that it is possible to ask 'what was the average momentum of the particles which reached this position?'".
"You can't know the exact value for any single particle, but you can talk about the average." . . .
. . . For his part, Professor Steinberg believes that the result reduces a limitation not on quantum physics but on physicists themselves.
"I feel like we're starting to pull back a veil on what nature really is," he said.
"The trouble with quantum mechanics is that while we've learned to calculate the outcomes of all sorts of experiments, we've lost much of our ability to describe what is really happening in any natural language.
"I think that this has really hampered our ability to make progress, to come up with new ideas and see intuitively how new systems ought to behave."
from: www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13626587
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What I think is the most interesting is the comment: “We’ve lost much of our ability to describe what is really happening in any natural language.” That is the problem you are circumventing through analogies in this book. Writing about the Dead in their setting is not so easy as it might look. With the Greeks I have mythology that readers are aware of and probably studied in school. I don’t know what is going to happen in terms of Ezekiel being in Hebrew Heaven (I am not sure what that is exactly and will have to bone up on it.)
You have come up with twenty-four pages of material in a twelve point font. That should be enough for our purposes. Post. – Amorella.
Most everything is packed or thrown out. Let’s go through the Hebrew afterlife and call it a night. I’ll edit. – Amorella.
It still seems like a lot of material but it also appears quite useful. I have the source from online but not the actual source. I will work on that.
Notes on Hebrew Life After Death
From: www.entheology.org/library/winters:
View of the Universe by the Ancient Hebrews
The ancient Hebrews pictured the universe--as did their Semitic neighbors--
as comprised of three levels--with Heaven at the top, Earth in the middle,
and a shadowy netherworld called Sheol at the bottom. Sheol was often pictured
as a cave underneath the earth where the shadowlike remains of virtually ALL
people—ie. BOTH good AND bad dwelled after death. . . .
Ancient Hebrew Views of Heaven
The image of Heaven being up in the clouds is presented in Genesis 28:12
in the description of Jacob's vision of a bridge to Heaven:
" And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of
it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of Gods ascending and
descending on it"
Some scholars have compared this view of a heaven in the sky, with
the ancient Greek view of Mt. Olympus, a large mountaintop on which
lived the ancient gods.
Around the time of Moses, ancient Hebrews did NOT believe in the possibility
of the dead going to heaven. That is, in the books of the Old Testament written BEFORE the Babylonian exile, (the books of Genesis through Kings)--there is NO reference to a belief or hope of a general resurrection of the virtuous
after one has died!
Ancient Hebrew Views on the Underworld
. . . Sheol was considered NEITHER a heaven nor a hell, but a
netherworld-like existence. It was described as the final gathering of all
the living, (Job 30:23) and was pictured as a "pit" or "ditch" (Psalms 30:10,
Ezekiel 28:8) under the earth. (Deuteronomy 32:22)
Sheol is described in Ecclesiastes as follows:
"But for the man who is counted among the living there is still hope:
remember, a live dog is better than a dead lion. True the living know
they will die; but the dead know nothing. there are no more rewards
for them; they are utterly forgotten. For them love, hate, ambition,
all are now over. Never again will they have any part in what is done
here under the sun...
Whatever task lies to your hand, do it with all your might; because in
Sheol, for which you are bound, there is neither doing nor thinking,
neither understanding nor wisdom [Eccl. 9:4-10 (NEB)]
Sheol in the Old Testament was NOT a place of eternal punishment, but a
place where EVERYONE went when they died--including the prophets. The ancient Hebrews appear to have believed that their ancestral spirits could be contacted (through mediums, etc) to provide guidance and wisdom to the living. Rituals relating to a form of ancestor worship dictated that descendants should prepare regular offerings of water and food nearby the tomb of the deceased.
Saul had engaged the help of this witch of Endor in his desperation to learn the future of an imminent battle with the Philistines. The witch dug a hole into the earth to properly make contact with this spiritual world, Sheole. She then described an appearance of the prophet Samuel--who though angry at being disturbed-- correctly predicted to Saul that he would die the very next day for displeasing God. . . .
The Persian prophet Zoraster, who lived around 1400 B.C.E., had taught that the universe could largely be understood as a divine struggle between the forcesled by the powerful prince of darkness, Ahriman. All history was viewed in terms of epochs--beginning with a golden age, followed in successive periods by periods of lesser value--silver, bronze, iron and so on. Ultimately time would run out, and all souls would be called before Judgment. On this Day of Judgment, there would be a cleansing of the earth, and a general resurrection from the dead.
Those who had lived a virtuous life and had died would now have their
bodies reassembled back together. Restored to its previous beauty and
perfection, there would be a new Eternal kingdom of Earth whereby the
virtuous would live forever. The image of a terrible hell to punish the
wicked was the complement to a belief in heaven. This dualistic concept of
heaven and hell became popular and spread rapidly throughout the ancient world. (Interestingly, in some versions the evil would be rehabilitated in hell,so that eventually everyone would be reconciled in heaven.)
Ezekiel, an exiled Jewish prophet in Babylon, was the first to write on
the new concept of a bodily resurrection. In a series of hopeful visions,
Ezekiel prophesized the rebuilding of a new glorious Jerusalem along with
its magnificent Temple. In one vision, Ezekiel was shown a vast plain coveredwith human bones that had been left out in the sun. God commanded him to prophecise to the bones and announce their resurrection. Instantly, the bones were reassembled into bodily form. Again, God commanded Ezekiel to order the winds to breath life into the bodies. At this, the bodies came back to life, and were led out of Babylonian exile back to their Palestine homeland.
The Hebrews believed in a formal burial of their dead. Many scholars believe that the vision of the vast plain strewn with human bones, shows Ezekiel possessed knowledge of the customs of a Zorastrian funeral --whereby the dead were never buried, but left out in the open to decompose and/or be eaten by animals of prey. Even if the bones were carried off by predators, Zorastrian doctrine taught that the Creator had the power to reassemble the scattered parts at the time of the general resurrection. (Colleen McDannell and Bernhard Lang, HEAVEN A HISTORY, Yale Univ. Press, p 12-3)
. . . Jews such as Ezekiel linked the idea of the resurrection with their LOCAL concerns of rebuilding the nation of Israel. That is, Ezekiel did not expect a new universe, but a new Jewish nation, free from foreign oppression. (Ibid, p 13). The new kingdom would be eternal, but the people themselves would not live forever. Instead people would live a long, fulfilled lives of some "five hundred years", even approaching close to the one thousand years of some of their patriarchal ancestors--after which time they would eventually die. (Ibid, p13 referencing the book of Enoch.)
II. Greek Influences
Homer, in his book the ODYSSEY speaks of an afterlife for the good in
a faraway place on earth known as the Elysian Fields--a place,
"...where all existence is a dream of ease.
Snowfall is never known there, neither long frost of winter,
nor torrential rain,
but only mild and lulling airs from Ocean
bearing refreshment for the souls of men--
the West Wind always blowing..."
(ODYSSEY, IV, p. 81 (translated by Robert Fitzgerald.)
Some of the mystery religions later placed this heaven in a location in the
sky. This view was in turn, picked up by some of the Greek philosophers. Plato
(428-347 B.C.E.) believed that there was a Creator of the Universe who resided
in the highest realms of the universe. Within each human body, resided a pure
spirit--ie soul, which upon its release from the body's death, naturally
gravitated upward towards the realm of the Creator--described as a celestial
city in the sky. If one did not live a good life on earth, then one's soul
sank back down to earth-- where it was reincarnated in some animal form that
reflected its character in its previous life (for example a wolf or mule.) . . .
In their earliest writings in the Old Testament, the ancient Hebrews viewed
God as being a local for their tribe. The preoccupation of these writers was
for God to act on behalf of his "chosen people" to make Israel into a strong
nation and to protect them from their enemies. . . .
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Below from: www.religionfacts.com/judaism/beliefs/afterlife:
The Torah and Talmud alike focus on the purpose of earthly life, which is to fulfill one's duties to God and one's fellow man. Succeeding at this brings reward, failing at it brings punishment. Whether rewards and punishments continue after death, or whether anything at all happens after death, is not as important.
Despite the subject's general exclusion from the Jewish sacred texts, however, Judaism does incorporate views on the afterlife. Yet unlike the other monotheistic religions, no one view has ever been officially agreed upon, and there is much room for speculation.
This section will begin with a look at biblical texts addressing the afterlife, then explore various Jewish views on subjects such as the resurrection of the dead, judgment, heaven and hell, and the messianic age.
The Hebrew word Olam Ha-Ba ("the world to come") is used for both the messianic age (see below) and the afterlife (see Gan Eden, below). The world to come is important and something to look forward to. A Mishnah passage says, "This world is like a lobby before the Olam Ha-Ba. Prepare yourself in the lobby so that you may enter the banquet hall." The tractate Moed Katan teaches, "This world is only like a hotel. The world to come is like a home." . . .
The Afterlife in the Torah
For the most part, the Torah describes the afterlife in vague terms, many of which may simply be figurative ways of speaking about death as it is observed by the living.
An early common theme is that death means rejoining one's ancestors. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and other patriarchs are "gathered to their people" after death (see Gen. 25:8, 25:17, 35:29, 49:33; Deut. 42:50; 2 Ki. 22:20). In contrast, the wicked are "cut off (kareit) from their people" (Gen. 17:14; Ex. 31:14). Other imagery emphasizes the finality of death: the dead are like dust returning to dust (Genesis; Ecc. 3:19-20) or water poured out on the ground (2 Samuel 14:14).
Another recurring biblical image of the afterlife is as a shadowy place called Sheol. It is a place of darkness (Psalm 88:13, Job 10:21, 22) and silence (Psalm 115:17), located in low places (Numbers 16:30, Ezekiel 31:14, Psalm 88:7, Lamentations 3:55; Jonah 2:7, Job 26:5). In 1 Samuel 2:6, God puts people in She'ol. In Isaiah 14:9-10, the departed in Sheol rise up to greet leaders who have now been brought low as they are. The author of Psalm 88 laments his impending death with these words:
I am sated with misfortune; I am at the brink of Sheol.
I am numbered with those who go down to the Pit;
I am a helpless man
abandoned among the dead,
like bodies lying in the grave
of whom You are mindful no more,
and who are cut off from Your care.
You have put me at the bottom of the Pit,
in the darkest places, in the depths.
(Psalm 88:4-7)
Taken together, these early biblical descriptions of death seem to indicate that the soul continues to exist in some way after death, but not consciously. Later in the Torah, the concept of conscious life after death begins to develop. Daniel 12:2 declares, "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to reproaches and everlasting abhorrence." Neh. 9:5.
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The above material will be used for reference in scene ten. Post. – Amorella.
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